UBS, a Swiss financial services company, in conjunction with Tesla hosted a private Model 3 test drive event on the weekend in Brooklyn, and two of the attendees had quite different opinions about the car. One, Toni Sacconaghi from Bernstein (performance profile here) was not impressed, calling fit and finish “relatively poor”. He reportedly took delivery of a Model X previously in 2016, and was similarly unimpressed by the customer service he received then. He also authored a survey in 2017 of 268 Tesla owners which found "a myriad of service and quality issues during the Model X launch," which should be no huge surprise to those who've followed that vehicle's rollout. Robert Cihra, an analyst from Guggenheim Partners (performance profile here) offered a different view, saying it's “true” Tesla, but with a lower price tag, and that the car “delivers.” In it's piece about the two reviews, Value Walk says, "According to CNBC, other Wall Street firms were also invited to take a Tesla Model 3 test drive this week. RBC and Goldman Sachs both reportedly received invitations and offered positive reviews." I couldn't find the CNBC piece they refer to. So, which of these guys do you believe? Is it possible to believe them both?
Everyone will have different opinions. Early models cam also vary some. So it depends on the facts they can provide also what are they comparing each point too. Some people love the quiet fast acceleration. Others miss the loud roar of exhaust. So details and facts are important. Then we can decide if they fit our life.
Neither of those two reviews are unbiased. Both are from financial "analysts", and it would be better to label their so-called reviews what they actually are: Advertisements for their, respectively, dumper and pumper stock seller positions. Regarding that negative advertisement/review linked to in the OP, the following is part of a comment posted to the InsideEVs news article by "CDAVIS": Also worth taking into consideration, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi has taken a very public bearish TSLA position on Tesla… Sacconaghi has published a 265$ TSLA price target… TSLA is now trading at ~302$… so it’s in Sacconaghi best interest (to preserve his TSLA position credibility) that TSLA gets knocked down… the street works that way. source: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2017/09/27/bernstein-predicts-tesla-plunge-as-it-nears-unprecedented-cash-burn.html Sacconaghi has a long history of negative writings about Tesla including his personal experience in purchasing a Model X: https://www.streetinsider.com/dr/news.php?id=12926099 https://insideevs.com/seeing-car-analyst-says-tesla-model-3-fit-finish-relatively-poor/#comment-1363399 You can read CDAVIS' entire comment here: https://insideevs.com/seeing-car-analyst-says-tesla-model-3-fit-finish-relatively-poor/#comment-1363399 * * * * * I look forward to reading objective, balanced reviews of the Tesla Model 3 by people who have a good understanding of cars and experience writing reviews. Stock "analysts" pushing their company's current stock buying/selling position don't even remotely fit the criteria of objective or balanced.
You're so cynical, @Pushmi-Pullyu! I probably lean more to the naive side. I like to believe that everyone's just giving their honest opinion, that way I don't have to construct complex theories in my head about why a person has a certain point of view. Case in point: Sacconaghi and his Tesla ownership. Did he just buy the thing like any consumer? Or was it a strategic investment, where he bought it so he could poo-poo it, maybe causing some depression of the stock price? I don't know. It's unknowable. Hopefully, the guy isn't the kind of jerk that would try a thing like that, because in the end, it probably didn't move the market, and it seems like a lot of effort for negligible return. Be nice if he could season his criticism's with what he like about both the car and company.
I entirely agree that the efforts of most of the Tesla hating FUDsters does not seem to be worth the effort they put into it. Perhaps a high-profile self-proclaimed "analyst" like Sacconaghi actually moves the market enough to make it worth his while; obviously whoever pays his salary thinks it does, or they wouldn't pay him to promote the company's stock position! But what about those bottom-feeders posting dozens of Tesla hater posts to Seeking Alpha every day? What about the serial Tesla haters who post comments to InsideEVs news articles on a daily basis, some of whom even occasionally post similar FUD to the Tesla Motors Club forum? Surely they can't possibly affect the price of Tesla's stock even as much as a single penny. And yet they continue their daily Tesla bashing! Is it delusion? Is it just refusing to admit to themselves that they are a failure at stock manipulation? Or is it that their life is so empty that, like a typical troll, they literally can find nothing better or more positive to do with their life? I don't know. Abnormal psychology ain't my area of study. Domenick, for a period of time I read all the Tesla-related blog posts, and comments to those, every day, over at Seeking Alpha. (You can set up an alert there to show all the articles (or more accurately, blog posts) referencing TSLA.) I did so to get a better idea of what the Tesla bashers' arguments were, including the fallacies they use in their FUD and their deceptive propaganda. Of course I also read the Tesla pumper comments there -- all the comments to Tesla-related blog posts -- altho Tesla pumper blog posts and comments are far less common at Seeking Alpha. It was rather a surreal experience being, apparently, the only person who wasn't an investor posting comments to SA, but I did find it an educational experience. But not a long-term one; after awhile, I had learned all there was to learn from mostly repetitive posts and FUD. From my experience, it seems pretty clear that some few Tesla bashers actually do pretend to own Tesla cars just so they can claim to base their bashing on personal experience. Note that one of the Usual Suspects regularly posting comments to InsideEVs news stories, "Four Electrics", claims (pretends?) to own a Tesla car... a MX as I recall. Whether or not any particular Tesla bashing "analyst" or serial FUDster actually owns a Tesla car or just pretends to... I don't really care. In either case, it just underscores their hypocrisy. They spend all that time and effort writing and posting anti-Tesla propaganda, yet they buy a Tesla car... or at least want us to believe they do! If they really did buy one of Tesla's cars after bashing them so frequently and so strongly, then what more do we need to demonstrate that they don't believe their own anti-Tesla claims and FUD? And if they're only pretending to own a Tesla car... well again, that just underscores their basic dishonesty, doesn't it? If I'm cynical about those who go out of their way to write biased negative things and Big Lies about Tesla and its cars... well, that's a realistic reaction based on long experience. I don't expect you to show the same cynicism, Domenick. As forum moderator, you are expected to remain neutral, and I appreciate that... "appreciate" in both senses of the word. Thank you for your service!
